Lyon boost Champions League bid with win at in-form Nice

By AFP
March 11, 2025
Olympique Lyonnaiss (Lyon) Ryan Cherki (left) celebrates with Thiago Ezequiel Almada after scoring teams first goal during the French L1 football match between against OGC Nice at the Allianz Riviera Stadium in Nice, south-eastern France, on March 9, 2025. —AFP
Olympique Lyonnais's (Lyon) Ryan Cherki (left) celebrates with Thiago Ezequiel Almada after scoring team's first goal during the French L1 football match between against OGC Nice at the Allianz Riviera Stadium in Nice, south-eastern France, on March 9, 2025. —AFP   

PARIS: Lyon kept themselves in the running for Champions League football next season with a 2-0 win at Nice on Sunday that denied their opponents the chance to go second in Ligue 1.

Substitutes Rayan Cherki and Ernest Nuamah scored for Lyon, who were playing their first game without coach Paulo Fonseca after he received a nine-month ban for an angry altercation with a referee.

The win sent Lyon back up to sixth and within four points of Nice in the final automatic Champions League spot. Lyon are only two points off Monaco in fourth. Nice could have gone above Marseille with a victory but instead their four-match winning run and their unbeaten home record this season ended.

Felix Lemarechal struck the only goal as Strasbourg won 1-0 at Nantes to remain two points behind Lyon. Liam Rosenior´s team have triumphed in four of their past five games, keeping clean sheets in all of them.

Abdallah Sima and Romain Faivre scored as Brest won 2-0 against Angers to stay in the race for Europe next season. Reims slumped to a sixth straight loss as their winless run stretched to 14 matches with a 2-0 home defeat by Auxerre.